Maura Biava

Some recent solo exhibitions
FOAM, Amsterdam 2007, 'Doride/Ultramarine'
Galerie Van Gelder, Amsterdam 2004, 'Doride, Gwen and Poly'

Some recent group exhibitions
De Nederlandsche Bank, Amsterdam 2009, 'Aanwinstententoonstelling 2007-2008: Een keuze'
Museum of New Art, Pontiac 2005, 'Going Dutch: New photography from the Netherlands'
De Appel, Amsterdam 2002, 'A'dam & Eve. On sex, tolerance and other dependencies'

Selected publications
Colin Huizing [et al.], Doride/Ultramarine, Harderwijk: Uitgeverij d'jonge Hond 2007
Roel Arkestein [et al.], Drawing typologies: proposal for municipal art acquisitions, Amsterdam: Stedelijk Museum 2007

Selected public and corporate collections
Museum Het Domein, Sittard, NL • Akzo Nobel Art Foundation, NL • De Nederlandsche Bank, NL

Doride is a name chosen by Maura Biava for one of her mythologically-related characters. What appeals to her about underwater life is the slowness and totally unique means of communicating. 'Doride is dreamy. For me, the underwater world is a completely different realm from our everyday world, just as art is another world. It is the world of imagination. For me, the blue of the water is like the white of the canvas. The art space, as much as we may try to push it into the real world, remains another reality. It's a reality of the imaginary, like the underwater world, since it isn't a place we can inhabit. It's a place with a sense of the mysterious that frees our fantasies. Those other realities let us forget about the taboos of how to perceive what we consider real.' The photo shows Doride, surrounded by objects including a ship's canon and anchor, gazing into her mirror in search of her own identity. For several years, Biava has been working with Elspeth Diederix on various underwater series shot in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the coast of Sardinia, the Red Sea in Egypt and in Cozumel in Mexico.

Maura Biava was resident artist at the Rijksakademie in 1997-1998.

www.maurabiava.com